The Dictionary Project, Volume X: Hawaii and the Philippines

The Dictionary Project is a post-a-day exploration of The Century Dictionary and Cylopedia, a twelve-volume set printed in New York in 1901. The Project runs from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015, and matches volume numbers to calendar months. Volume X is The Atlas, and today is Day 29.

The jigsaw-puzzle visual of yesterday’s map continues on today’s map, as the mapmakers smush together two island chains–tiny Hawaii and the (relatively) massive Philippines by removing not only thousands of square miles of ocean, but the International Date Line, to boot.

My favourite part of this map is the inset of the Honolulu area, which has changed a lot since 1897. There is a tiny area of human habitation, compared to today. The Wright brothers are still six years away from their first flight at Kitty Hawk, and the Honolulu airport is decades away from being imagined, let alone being built on reclaimed land in that bay near downtown. I’m pleased to see that Waipio Peninsula, though perhaps no longer “grazing land” is nonetheless a green space with recreation grounds and lots of trees. And I’m quite curious to know what “Queen Emma’s Large House” was, and what became of it, and when. Must look into that further some day.